Travel Blog Advice » Writing

How To Write Useful Travel Guides For Readers Of Your Travel Blog

Anil P. — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 05:00:53 +0000

This is a guest post by Jason Demant, the co-founder of Unanchor whom I interviewed back in 2010. Since then, a few things have changed on the site where travelers can create and sell their own personalized itineraries – this is Part 2 on how to write great travel itineraries in a series that covers 3 of my sites. You can catch Part 1: Earn Some Extra Travel Cash By Writing City Guides On Unanchor and see Unanchor in action with Part 3: What To Do In Seoul, South Korea On A 24 Hour Layover.

As the cofounder of Unanchor.com, I have read over 100 travel itineraries. Through this process I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to write a great itinerary. In today’s post I’d like to offer my advice and tips for any aspiring travel writers on how to write the perfect travel itinerary.

Why Write Itineraries?

The first question you may be wondering is why write a travel itinerary to begin with?

Show off your local expertise.
Give people a new way to travel and see your favorite city.
It’s a great way to complement your travel blog by showing your readers exactly how you traveled a particular city or how you recommend they see your city.

…and of course you can make some extra money by selling them on Unanchor.

Have The Right Mentality – Be Their Tour Guide

The best way to begin the itinerary writing process is to ask yourself what you would do with your close friend if they were visiting your city for the first time.

What attractions would you take them to see?
What information would you tell them about your city break?
What restaurants would you go to?
Where are the great local gems that you only know about from living in the city?
Where do the locals hang out and what do they do?

Give travelers what they want, not what they ask for.

I believe that travelers ask for options but they really want advice and recommendations. When writing an itinerary limit the number of options you give travelers. Don’t forget, you’re the expert. Don’t be bashful, travelers want your recommendations. There’s no harm in giving your recommendations – people can always choose to do their own thing.

Provide Clear Directions

Some people are great at reading maps while others aren’t, so make sure to include both a map and written directions. The best directions are those that constantly give clues that you’re on the right track. This is as easy as identifying landmarks that you’ll pass as you go. Make sure to mention things that they may see if they’ve gone too far as well.

Restaurants – These are the exception where giving options is a good idea. However, when recommending multiple restaurants, make sure it’s easy to understand the differences between them. Avoid recommending restaurants that serve the same food in the same price range. Otherwise, how will the traveler be able to understand the differences?

Don’t forget to recommend the best dishes at the restaurants as well. Restaurants are typically known for a dish or two and be sure to mention those.

Don’t Forget The Photos

Including pictures is a great way to spice up your travel itinerary. But which pictures do you include? The best pictures are used to show the travelers what they’re looking for or that they’re on the right track in the directions. Some good examples:

A famous building.
The front of the restaurant that you recommend.
A tricky, easy to miss turn.

The Format

The itinerary should have a clear and easy-to-read format. You want to lead the traveler through your city, from activity-to-activity as if you’re walking there next to them. If you’re looking for a pre-made template, you can download Unanchor’s itinerary template here [MS Word document]. (If you choose to write for Unanchor, we have an online itinerary generator that takes care of the formatting for you.)

Some Other General Tips

Unless you clearly explain it, try to avoid acronyms, local lingo and nicknames as much as possible. Don’t forget to recommend how to get to the first destination of the day. You won’t know exactly where the traveler is staying, so you’ll want to mention any public transportation stops that are nearby or if it’s easier to just take a taxi.

Thank you Jason for this itinerary power lesson. Students (aka. all of you) can visit UnAnchor, to earn some extra cash by helping out other travelers with your experienced tips. Follow up with Part 1: Earn Some Extra Travel Cash By Writing City Guides On UnAnchor and get a good example in Part 3: What To Do In Seoul, South Korea On A 24 Hour Layover.

Quick Things To Post On Your Travel Blog When You’re Traveling Too Much To Write

Interview With Dave Fox About Globejotter Tours, Combining Writing And Travel – [Part 2 of 2]

Anil P. — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 08:00:48 +0000

Dave Fox is the founder of Globejotter Tours, and the author of Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad and Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals (and still have time to enjoy your trip!) He lives in Seattle, Washington. Dave took a few minutes to answer a some questions about Globejotter’s tours which incorporate writing into each trip in Part 1 on foXnoMad, below is Part 2 of the interview.

Also, if you’d like to join Dave on his next tour to Vietnam and happen to mention you heard about it from Travel Blog Advice or foXnoMad, you’ll receive a $200 discount.

Where do the tours go?

Our next trip is to southern Vietnam in October. I first went there a couple of years ago and instantly fell in love with the country. The people are wonderful, the scenery’s incredible, and the food is scrumptious. I’ve been back several times since then and I’ve got close friends there now, including my pal, Phúc, who’s a locally licensed guide and will be co-guiding the trip with me. (Yeah, I know. People giggle at his name. It rhymes with “book,” not “buck,” and it’s as common a name in Vietnam as Dave is in America.) We’ll start and finish in Ho Chi Minh City. We’re also going to spend three days in the Mekong Delta, and four days in Mui Ne on the South China Sea coast.

Our other big destination so far has been Botswana. I partnered on that trip with Bill Given, an African wildlife specialist. We visited the Okavango Delta and Kalahari Desert and had an amazing time. We’re talking about another Botswana trip sometime next year, and possibly something in East Africa as well.

We can also do private tours elsewhere if therer’s a small group of people with a particular destination in mind. And, I’m hoping to do some short break weekend writing getaways in the United States starting in 2011.

How do you think people can be motivated to write during their journey in general?

That’s one of the biggest challenges people face; in fact, in my book, Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals, I dedicate an entire chapter to finding time to write and staying motivated.

I think the thing that bogs people down is perfectionism. They try to create their best writing in the middle of their trips. When beautiful prose doesn’t flow effortlessly from their pens, they feel like they’re wasting precious vacation time, and they give up. I encourage people to use their journals not as the place where they’ll create their best, most polished writing, but instead as a place to splash as many details onto their pages as quickly as possible and collect material for more polished writing later. If they’re only journaling for themselves and don’t plan on doing any rewriting, their journals have a lot more memory triggers to help them recall their trips later on. If they want to write more polished travel stories, their journals serve as rough drafts, with lots of details to work with.

Some people are reluctant to write because they’re “terrible” at it or feel self-conscious about their ability. What is your advice for them?

I’m not sure where it came from, but there’s a myth that you are either born a “gifted” writer or you’re not. That’s just not true. You don’t become a talented writer overnight, anymore than you would become a talented violinist or a skilled brain surgeon overnight. The more you practice, the better you get.

So I encourage people to create the writing they think is “terrible” and give themselves a break when they’re starting out. Understand that nobody creates great writing in their first draft. So write a bad first draft. Then start shaping it into something better. Find your favorite professional writers, pay attention to how they write, and ask yourself what they’re doing differently from you. And seek help from other writers. Don’t be afraid to share your work with more experienced writers. We all started out “terrible” and most professional writers who are decent human beings understand that beginning writers are going to have habits they need help breaking. Whether you learn from classes, books, writers’ groups, or one-on-one mentoring, there are all kinds of basic techniques that will help you become a better writer. So, write as much as possible, rewrite and improve things, learn techniques, seek feedback, and welcome that feedback even when it stings a little. Writing well isn’t rocket science. You just have to learn how to do it and practice as much as possible. (I guess you could say that about rocket science too, but you get the point.)

And remember – when you read a great book or story, it wasn’t composed as effortlessly as you are reading it. Before our work is fit for public consumption, most of us who write professionally spend plenty of time writing “terrible” first drafts, whacking ourselves on the head, swearing at our computers, toiling over details and descriptions that aren’t quite right, and eventually, with a lot of trial and error, finding the right words to craft a great story.

What is your writing background?

I’ve loved writing as long as I can remember. I got started in travel journaling at a young age. I was born and raised in America, but my family moved to England for a year when I was eight, and we traveled all over Europe and northern Africa that year. I’d write little stories about our adventures, and nearly 30 years later, I published my first travel humor book (which even includes a few stories from my childhood year in England.)

I wrote for my high school newspaper. In college, I majored in journalism. I worked in newspapers and radio for a while, and for an educational publishing company before I got serious about travel and humor writing. Along with writing, foreign travel has always been my other passion. Travel to me is really about collecting stories as I cross paths with people who are different from me. I started writing those stories down, and they eventually evolved into my travel writing and tour guiding career.

Any advice for travel bloggers or folks wants to start a travel blog as a journal?

Blogging is different from traditional travel journaling in a couple of ways. For starters, it’s read by others, not just ourselves, so we tend to censor our thoughts more. In addition, it’s instant, which I love. I was in Saigon one time, having a beer at a streetside bar around at 2 a.m., when a group of ladies showed up across the street carrying a stack of little plastic tables and chairs and two huge pots of food. In minutes, they set up a makeshift restaurant on the street and were open for business. I thought this was so cool. Thirty minutes later, back at my hotel, I blogged about it before going to bed. Minutes later, my friends at work back in America were right there with me.

The best advice I can offer about creating a travel blog that others will want to read is it shouldn’t sound like a traditional travel diary. Step-by-step accounts of your day aren’t so interesting. Instead, pick specific stories, insights, or personal encounters, and write each one as a separate blog entry.

Something else I do when travel blogging – I think this is really important – is I always carry a pocket-sized notepad to scribble things down throughout my day. I make quick notes or lists of topics to blog about later. Occasionally, I write entire blog entries in my notepad so I can type them quickly later. When we travel in unfamiliar places, we’re hit with so many impressions, we can’t remember them all, nor do we have time to blog about all of them. Jotting a few quick notes about the ideas that flit through your brain will help you remember your best ideas when you can find time at a computer.

Any upcoming travel plans?

My next big trip is to exotic Dayton, Ohio, for the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop. It’s a fantastic writing workshop with an emphasis on humor writing. It’s where I landed my first book deal, so I always love going back there. (Erma Bombeck was an American newspaper columnist who was born in Dayton, which is why they always have the conference there. My one complaint, with all due respect to the good people of Dayton, Ohio, is I wish she had been born in Hawaii.)

Beyond that, my next overseas travels are to Europe from June through August. In addition to my own tours, I work in the summer for European travel expert Rick Steves, and guide his Scandinavia and “Best of Europe” tours. Then I’ve got my Globejotter writing tour in Vietnam in October.

Dave, thank you very much for the wonderful interview and the great advice on writing, blogging, and journaling. You can find out more about Dave Fox on his website Globejotter Tours, and check out his two books, Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad and Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals.

How Traveling Is Good For Your Travel Blog

Anil P. — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:00:14 +0000

As ironic as it seems, traveling, and blogging about travel can be more difficult when you’re actually traveling. That’s a common sentiment anyway, but when it comes down to it traveling may be a bit harder on you but it’s great for your travel blog. There are of course quite a few quick things you can post on your travel blog when you’re traveling too much to write, but the road is still your blog’s best friend. Don’t dread or neglect your blog when you’re traveling, with just a slight amount of prior planning you can turn even the simplest trip into a content generator that will ease your blogging duties for weeks to come.

Write Ahead

Writing a single blog post that’s well edited, linked to other relevant posts on your site and elsewhere, with photos or video to compliment the article takes time. Writing a second blog post right after doesn’t take nearly as much time. You can even break up the single post, expand on one of the points, or run a poll after or before the article and use it as material. That takes off the primary pressure of writing when you don’t know where your next wi-fi signal, clean table, or power outlet will be. The best practice is to write as far in advance as you can to the next point where you know you’ll have the magic ingredients any blogger needs – a reliable Internet connection and electricity.

Everything Is A Potential Post

Once you’re not consuming your mind obsessing over what you have (or haven’t written) you can focus on the world around you and how to write about it. There are ideas within topics around ideas everywhere. Traveling is the source of your writing passion, the driving force behind your blog. Don’t pass over the opportunity to use your travels for your travel blog. It’s when you don’t plan ahead that you bump into problems, you’ve got to focus forward, not backwards.

Experiment

For those of you who’ve never made a travel video, interviewed a hostel owner, or done a photo essay, a trip is a good time to invest in some new mediums for your blog. The element that traveling takes away from your blog is time, once you resolve that issue you are free to move in new directions and generate content on top of new content in different ways.

Enjoy The Game

As I sit here typing this in a hostel in Berlin, among loud people enjoying a drink in a bar that’s filling up rapidly, I’m watching a number of stories unfold before me. The most difficult thing I, and you face when traveling and blogging is the physical act of writing and getting online. Don’t over-complicate the process of travel blogging and neglect the most important part – you. When you do find a good connection and a little bit of time, work and write so you can use the rest of the time to actually travel. It’s one of the best things you can do for your travel blog.

[photos by: mbowiersr, Tiago Daniel]

Quick Things To Post On Your Travel Blog When You’re Traveling Too Much To Write

A Review Of Travel Blog Success

Anil P. — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:00:10 +0000

Experienced travel blogger and world traveler Dave Lee has just launched a new membership site, Travel Blog Success, aimed at helping people develop successful travel blogs. I was given a sneak peak before the launch and wanted to share some of my thoughts about it with you.

Travel Blog Success is a wealth of information about travel blogging as a whole. The membership site, with an introductory price of $75 (reduced from $135) for a plan of 12 lessons will save you time as your try to figure out two things many bloggers are after – readership and money. The 12 lessons cover some basic aspects of setting up a travel blog such as choosing a good domain name, ideas on formatting posts, and search engine optimization (SEO).

Usually if you stick with blogging long enough you’ll figure these things out but Travel Blog Success will save you months and perhaps years of trial and error if you read through all of the lessons and interact on the community forum. You’ll likely benefit most from the technical details of building a blog and the nuts and bolts of SEO. In the end though, you need to find your own voice, style, and niche within the travel blogging community to succeed.

In Addition To The Lessons

One of the biggest benefits of Travel Blog Success though is the community behind it. Dave has done a good job of bringing in writers from some very successful travel blogs such as Vagabondish and the Indie Travel Podcast. The forums are also full of a wide range of travel bloggers and an excellent place to network, something that is a vital part of building a successful travel blog.

There is also an active travel blog on Travel Blog Success, podcasts and audio interviews, and access to Dave himself.

Travel Blog Success isn’t for casual travel bloggers but rather those looking to turn their websites into a business or take their blog to the next step. As for the cost there are two options, one for $29 per month for 3 months (a total of $87), or a one-time fee of $75. There is also a 60-day money back guarantee and compared to similar products the price is very reasonable for the blogging, SEO advice, and access to other bloggers you get.

Dave has developed two very successful travel blogs (both nominated for 2010 Bloggie Awards) GoBackpacking.com and MedellinLiving.com. I know the amount of effort Dave has put into creating Travel Blog Success and am confident it will be a thriving travel blogging community where most members (and their travel blogs) will benefit.

Selecting Smart Breaks From Travel Blogging

Anil P. — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:00:50 +0000

Traveling and blogging are often in conflict with one another and it can be stressful for you as a travel blogger to maintain your writing when you’re active on the road. It’s important, especially if you want to establish and expand your travel blog, to maintain a weekly posting schedule by writing posts in advance so they’ll be up on your site even if you’re not in front of a computer. You can make better use of your scheduled posts by taking advantage of some “Internet slow time” and stretching out your blogging calendar.

Travel bloggers don’t often get many opportunities to take breaks from their blogs and rather than abruptly stopping your regular schedule as soon as your travel schedule picks up, choose some smart breaks from travel blogging.

Use The Right Holidays

You don’t want to write posts when people are unlikely to be reading. Using Google Analytics you can find out from which countries your readers are coming from and when they themselves are probably taking a break. A large majority of foXnoMad readers are based in the US, which is why I tend not to write on major American holidays. I’ve also found that many other English websites have a significant drop in traffic on days like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Don’t stress yourself out trying to write on these days and wait until the holiday is over to post your best stuff.

When You Guest Post

A day or two after a guest post of yours appears on another blog use the opportunity to take a break on your own site. You’ve written a post that will hopefully bring some new readers to your site and you can use the opportunity for a break if you need it. Taking the break a day or two after you guest post lets your new subscribers see some fresh material so you don’t lose them in those critical first few days.

Look At Your Last Few Posts

Sometimes you end up spending so much time obsessing on the posts to come that you don’t take a look back to see what you’ve recently been writing. Having a series of longer posts sets up a good opportunity for a break or a simple post with some links recapping those longer articles. It’s much better to link back to good past posts rather than put up crappy new ones.

Margin Of Error

Look at your blogging schedule, whether it’s once a week or 5 times a day and give yourself at least a 5-10% margin of error. That is, out of 100 posts you’ll take 5 or 10 breaks here and there. It’s an acceptable amount and one that’s no going to stress you out or significantly hurt your readership.

Plan those breaks into your schedule in advance.

Why Take Breaks?

Many travel bloggers don’t start out with set schedules but once you get on track with one you may feel enormous pressure to deliver. On foXnoMad, I write once every weekday and before I organized my blogging schedule about 2 years ago, I’d find myself often struggling to write for the next day. I’d end up putting posts up that I didn’t think were of the best quality and my frustration writing them would show in the post. (Remember if you don’t like your posts your readers probably won’t either.) I’d dread blogging when I was traveling when it should be the opposite way around.

Travel Blogging Isn’t All Writing

We all need breaks and taking them improves the quantity of your posts and can be a good time to focus on other aspects of your blog that don’t involve writing posts (jotting down ideas, setting goals, etc). There are also plenty of quick things to post on your travel blog when you’re traveling too much to write.

Taking breaks from your travel blog can be a good thing if you choose your breaks wisely. Your travel blog won’t fall apart and everyone won’t forget you. The worst thing to do if you’re going to take a break is to not enjoy it, recharge, and worry about blogging the next day.

[photos by: notanartist, floodllama, Francesco Rachello]

Balancing Travel Blogging And Your Personal Relationships

Using Twitter To Jump Start Your Travel Blog

Anil P. — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:00:42 +0000

Often travelers become at odds with their travel blog. Either you’re traveling and too busy to write or sometimes not traveling enough and get short on ideas. Twitter and the concept of tweets are a good way to energize your travel blog when you’re short on time or inspiration.

Micro-Posts

When I find myself slowing down and finding it difficult to post on my travel blog foXnoMad, instead of getting frustrated in trying to generate longer posts I do the opposite. Twitter is all about brevity and you can use it in several ways to create micro-posts to tide your site over and relieve stress. (Once the stress is gone the ideas will probably start flowing again.)

Create A Post Of Recent Tweets. Funny how when you’re facing writer’s block or have a short amount of time to get a post up you still manage to tweet several times before returning to your blank blog page. Use that material (including and good re-tweets) to make a short post of some travel-related tweets you’ve recently made. You’ll be able to give some useful links, highlight some other travel tweeters, and add a touch of personality to your travel blog.
Highlight an Interesting Discussion. There are often heated debates and open discussions between travel bloggers on Twitter. These conversations bring up interesting questions and points you can highlight for your readers (and doesn’t take much writing from you). Take some screen shots and setup a few lines before the post. An example is when I asked, is English the universal language back in May.
Twitter From The Road. Travel Sights With Lilliy has been posting tweets and pictures (using Twitpic) as she travels from the Middle East to the US. When you’re on the road you can do this using your iPhone/smart phone or have tweets automatically posted to your WordPress blog with Twitter Hack.
#followfriday. Make up some travel categories and highlight (in 140 characters or less) some great tweeps to follow. Again, you’re expanding a bit on what you are already posting on Twitter.
Pose A Question. This method is a bit more proactive than the others but you can easily pose a question for your followers. The responses should make for a good collection to post where hopefully the conversation will continue with more blog comments.

It’s important to keep to a weekly posting schedule which gets tough when you travel a lot or too little. Twitter is filled with good material for a quick post, and much of that is material you’re generating! Posting a series of micro-posts changes the pace of your travel blog which your readers will appreciate. Shorter posts where you let your ideas flow will also remove the burden of “I have to post something before my flight in an hour” and lead to less stress, more ideas and better writing in the long term.

[photos by: Mark Hamm]

A Few Good Tweets For Travelers To Learn About Twitter

The Basics Of Building A Successful Travel Blog: Part 2

Anil P. — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:00:32 +0000

In Part 1 of The Basics of Building a Successful Travel Blog I talked about how important it is to find your voice and a travel niche that you can become an expert in. It’s important to establish yourself within a good collection of material that stays on topic and doesn’t divert from your main niche and direction. Keep your posting schedule, voice, and topic consistent and readers will keep coming back to read what you’ve written.

Don’t Waste Time

In every post get to the point and do it fast. Take a lesson from journalists and use the upside down pyramid to organize your writing. Your most important and interesting information should be at beginning of each post. Your first sentence should pretty much tell what your entire post is about and convey the point you’re trying to get across.

If you’re writing more of a travelogue based on your personal trips, try not to spend more time than you need on any given aspect of a place you’ve visited.

Take a look at what you’ve written before posting anything and cut out 20% of it. You can usually find lots of added text that doesn’t quite fit or is more filler than anything else. You need to be as efficient and effective of a writer as you can for an Internet audience.

Use Pictures, Lots of Them

Don’t neglect the visual aspect of your blog and make sure to include at least one picture per post. If you’re traveling remember to take pictures that will be specifically for your blog. Like your writing though just post the best and most interesting ones.

Worried about posting the pictures you’ve taken because you’re not a great photographer? Learn how to take decent travel photos and add a personal touch to them.

Posting pictures you’ve taken, some with you in them, will help your readers connect with you and add to the personal feel of your travel blog.

Travel With Your Blog In Mind

Most travel blogs are written by people who travel more often than not and since you’re one of them you’ll need to prepare yourself for when you’re not able to sit down and post. Make sure to have a rough idea of when and where you’ll have wireless access and learn how to bum a wi-fi signal on the road.

Before you leave for any trip make sure to prepare your mind and your travel blog.

Maintain a List of Ideas - You should always have a list of at least 20 things to blog about in a list somewhere. It can be pen and paper or in an email to yourself but don’t let yourself run out of topics (especially while you’re on the road!)
Use Series, Angles, and Elements – Take a single event or trip and break it down into a series of posts or look at the same subject from a number of different angles or voices. There are endless elements of any single event you can use to branch off into other posts. It just takes some dedicated time thinking about it.
If You Don’t Care, Nobody Else Will Either – When you post something that you’re not interested in or enthusiastic about none of your readers will be either. Find something interesting about the subject you want to write about or don’t post it at all.

Keep The Posts Coming

The most difficult aspect of travel blogging, and blogging in general, is to keep the posts going long after you’ve started. Most everyone starts out with energy and enthusiasm but it can be trying at times to keep it all going. Try and not force your writing and don’t be afraid to take a break from time to time if you need it. That’s where your idea lists come in handy. The longer the list the easier it will be to find something that gets your creative engine going on any given day.

A key to any successful blog is consistency. It’s simply unavoidable that you’ll need to write and continue to do so for a long time. It takes years of writing but pace yourself with a weekly posting goal. Set a schedule and make sure to blog according to that schedule as closely as you can. Whether it’s once a week, twice a month, or everyday pick a pace you can maintain for the long run.

More Work Than You Think

Travel blogging is harder than most people realize at first which is probably why so many stop doing it after awhile. It will take you years of writing and learning from your mistakes to establish trust and a connection with your readers. You can help yourself by organizing your thoughts and establishing a blogging routine.

Keep your own creativity and blogging passion alive by varying your content with pictures, some personality, and take breaks when you need them. Over time you’ll be able to build a loyal following and with luck reach your personal goals for a successful travel blog.

[photos by: mao_lini, Spencer Finnley, casasroger]

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The Basics Of Building A Successful Travel Blog: Part 1

Anil P. — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:00:58 +0000

A successful travel blog, in terms of readership, can help you expand your blog to other social networks, increase revenue, and open the doors to other writing outlets. There is no one way to build a successful travel blog and to do so you’ll need to leverage several angles with these beginner travel blog tips.

Define A Topic

Personal travelogues are difficult to maintain over the long run and it’s best to pick a specific topic within the travel genre that you can keep writing about as your travel slow down. That’s not to say that you can’t post about your own travels from time to time but find something specific. The more specific the better.

You should be able to define your blog to a stranger in a sentence or two. If you can’t it’s time to narrow your scope.

It’s never too late to begin and narrow down your scope. If you do have an existing travel blog take a look at your most popular posts and the ones that generated the most discussion for ideas for what to focus on.

Express Yourself

In the sea of travel blog every topic you can imagine is being covered. You can talk about those topics too but if you don’t establish yourself in your writing less people will care about what you have to say. People will find your blog through search engines, social networks like Twitter, and word of mouth but if you don’t let yourself shine you’re just another travel blog about Mexico. People don’t read travel blogs for photos, advice, and travel stories – they read travel blogs for YOUR photos, YOUR advice, and YOUR travel stories.

Don’t Neglect Your Voice

Make sure that you’ve created a strong blog persona. Preferably using your real name and keeping that name consistent across all the Internet when you leave comments and on any social networking accounts you’re a part of. Don’t mistake establishing a voice for ranting or just posting away whatever you happen to be thinking at the moment. Focus your travels and thoughts into coherent posts that will draw readers in and allow them to learn more about you.

Be Accessible

Most travel bloggers when they first start out try to mask themselves to a degree for various reasons. Remember that it’s your personality that people are ultimately drawn to and will make your blog posts stand out from the crowd. Make yourself easy to see and easy to find.

Use your real name and have a picture of yourself that’s easy to find.
Have a clearly visible and complete contact page. Include both a contact page (WP Contact Form is a good one for WordPress blogs) and list where you can be found on social networks.

Now that you’ve begun to establish your voice it’s time to turn your efforts into coherent, effective posts that can reach a wide audience. In Part 2 I’ll show you how to create posts that your readers can relate to and learn from while you keep it all going.

[photos by: House Photography, Saad.Akhtar, tanakawhow]

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So You Want To Write An eBook?

Anil P. — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:31:10 +0000

Writing an eBook in conjunction with your travel blog can be a great way to challenge you creatively, promote your travel blog, and encourage casual readers to become subscribers. Before you dive in though it’s good to set out a direction and plan to follow. eBooks take more time and thought than any old blog post so setting a few markers and milestones along the way will help you finish a complete product.

Have A Specific Topic

Having a well defined topic not only makes for a better book but allows your writing to flow without your book being all over the place. What is it you want to write about – How to Make Money with Your Travel Blog, or Overcoming the 7 Major Obstacles to Traveling the World are well defined subjects. “Traveling around the world” or “backpacking in Europe” can be good places to start but refine them so it’s easy to tell what exactly the eBook is about.

Add something to your title or subject that you can keep going back to in the eBook itself. “Traveling around the world on $20 a day” or “backpacking in Europe at 22″ are good ways to personalize the title.

Build From Scratch Or Build Upon

Your travel blog is a wealth of information you can use to keep generating new content and your eBook is no different. Taking existing material and using it for your eBook can be successful, just make sure to add to what you’ve got and touch upon things that you can’t always get to in a short blog post. If you decide to build upon what you’ve got for your eBook make sure to provide new value in the book in addition to what you’ve got on your blog.

Starting From Scratch

Go in reverse and take the ideas you build in your eBook and find ways to incorporate them into blog posts and your other writing. Maybe there are a few posts on your travel blog you think revolve around the same topic and an eBook would be a good place to bring it all together.

Consider a new angle – Perhaps you’re not very personal on your travel blog or stick with a single philosophy. Use your eBook to mix it up and show off another side of yourself.
See what your peers are writing – You should have a big RSS reader full of feeds from travel blogs. If you don’t there are travel magazines, online journals, and plenty of other travel content out there. What are other people writing and what’s your take. Agree or go against the grain? It doesn’t have to be travel related – inspiration can come from anywhere. What’s on your mind right now?
Collaborate - It can be scary opening up your writing projects to others but it’s a good idea to reach out to other travel bloggers and writers your familiar with from time to time. From asking for opinions to working together on some material for your eBook, talking with like minds will enhance your work. Embrace the community.

Set A Schedule

Don’t brood and spend an eternity on getting your eBook going. You don’t just get one shot – there are other opportunities to write about other topics and if your first book is terrible the worse that can happen is you’ll learn from your mistakes. Leave your insecurities behind and set a schedule that includes some basic milestones.

Defining a Topic
Completing the Introduction
Section 1, 2, 3 (however you want to break it up)
Finishing the Conclusion
Sending Out Drafts
Edits
Finalizing the eBook and Getting It Ready For The World

Take The First Step

I won’t outline all of the details in this post on how to actually put together an eBook (that’s another post coming up) but the hardest step you’ll take is actually writing the first word. Open up whatever word editing program you like and start typing and let the words flow like water. Don’t worry about spell check, fixing grammar, or anything else.

Get something down on paper, in your computer, somewhere. Once you start it’s a lot easier than you think. You’ll be providing value to your readers both old and new. At the end of the process your eBook will be a great champion of your own blog and something you can consider selling or give away to your new subscribers.

Quick Things To Post On Your Travel Blog When You’re Traveling Too Much To Write

Quick Things To Post On Your Travel Blog When You’re Traveling Too Much To Write

Anil P. — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:00:56 +0000

This post originally appeared in foXnoMad.

Maintaining a travel blog requires experience traveling, making it difficult at times to keep writing new posts when you’re on the move. Yesterday I suddenly realized my December travel schedule is looking more hectic as I hop all over the US and in Asia. Balancing traveling with writing is a dilemma all travel writers and bloggers face from time to time.

Luckily there are a number of quick ways to post quick, good material, in advance, without jeopardizing your schedule.

Pictures You’ve Taken

The easy way out is to post some travel photos you find online or from other blogs. However it’s much more interesting for your readers to see photos that you’ve personally taken (here are mine) – even if you don’t feel they’re ‘good enough’.

The pictures and posts that I don’t feel are ‘good enough’ are usually the ones that generate the most feedback. Don’t fret too much and hit “publish”!

Include yourself in some of the pictures since most of the travel photos you post are likely to be of other people.

Chop It Down

Almost any written post can be cut down, even ones as short as 200 words. Make a short series of a post that you would normally run on one day. You can even incorporate pictures into the flow and potentially turn one regular post into a week’s worth when your traveling.

Take a single topic and do the opposite, now you have two posts.

Find out what other travelers blogging are saying about the place or topic your talking about write about what you plan to prove and disprove (two posts right there).

Get Connected

Spend some time getting in touch with other travelers, writers, and online tools that you think would be useful for travelers. Other bloggers appreciate links and companies love it when you write about their products or services.

Next time you leave a comment on a travel-related blog check out the links associated with the other commenters. Find a few and feature your favorite links.

Do a Google Blog Search on a destination you’ve never been to but have always wanted to see. Pick one or two of the best entries you find and write about them.

Write a short summary of where you’re traveling and ask if anyone has any personal experiences, advice, or is traveling in the area and would like to meet up. You’ll get the best advice from helpful readers as I did before my recent trip to New Delhi.

If you’re on Facebook as I am, you probably get various responses to your status updates. Pose a travel related question and then post the replies you get on Facebook (or Twitter, etc).

Sign up to a new (preferably free) online travel service or tool like TripSay and use it during your trip. Jot down a few mental notes and write an informal review in a series. On the first day announce you’re using a new service see if any of your readers are on it as well.

Two Birds With One Stone

Make your blog a source of content. It’s easy to ignore your own blog in your writing, but remember, it is the primary medium which people use to read about your travels, see your pictures, and get in touch with you.

Update one of your primary blog pages like your About Me page and post those changes in a blog entry. Hopefully you’ve now got a better about page and one less day to worry about writing.

Introduce or explain a specific feature of your website or blog. Don’t assume that everyone understands or notices things like RSS feeds, comments, or search pages.

Tweak, update, or recap an old post that may again be relevant (i.e. has the economy effected your travel plans?)

Some Others Ideas To Keep In Mind

Tell others where your going and that you’ll be offline.
Useful videos - this usually only works if you’ve got a good video on hand or in your inbox. Otherwise searching for a video can be a big time waster and leave you with nothing to show for it.
Polls – Ask simple questions and do surveys. I’ve found it’s useful to limit the number of choices in a poll to only a few for the best response.
Enter a travel contest and write about it – There are plenty of travel-related contests around the Internet and on blogs.
Write about quick things to write about when traveling

Quick content doesn’t mean cheap or uninteresting material. In fact, the traveling time crunch forces you to be a bit more creative to come up with quick and different things to share with your readers. Breaking up the normal routine is healthy for your travel blog and not something to stress about (enjoy your trip!).

Shorter posts can be a nice way to give yourself and readers a break, ultimately keeping your travel blogging passion alive and your readers coming back.

[photos by: KatieKrueger, ariehsinger, Essjay is happy in NZ]

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